Midcentury-Modern Furniture for Kids

IF YOU ASSOCIATE midcentury-modern design with "Mad Men"-era Martini culture, you may be surprised to learn that many modernists were inspired by…children. In the wake of two world wars, such makers of functional objects as Charles and Ray Eames and Arne Jacobsen saw good design as a path to social, emotional and physical well-being for the entire family. "When you have a very clear vision of the society you want to shape, then children are an obvious starting point," said Juliet Kinchin, who curated last year's "Century of the Child: 1900-2000" exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern Art. "And I think that's an important strand in the history of modernist design."

That sense of social urgency hasn't exactly persisted in this era, but midcentury furniture for children—wee molded-plywood chairs, tiny pedigreed tables—has become a hot topic among collectors, purveyors, designers and parents. An increasing number of manufacturers, such as midcentury heavyweight Knoll, have added children's furniture lines; another kid-centric exhibition, "Design for the Modern Child," is opening at the Philadelphia Museum of Art on May 25; and Kinder Modern, an online retail gallery specializing in vintage midcentury design for kids, recently launched.

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AMERICA'S NEXT HOP MODEL | Many midcentury designers believed that exposing children to good design was the key to creating a new social order, says curator Juliet Kinchin. In this 1951 shot, a boy non-grudgingly endorses a modernist bed.
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The trend doesn't just reflect the desire of increasingly design-savvy parents to inculcate good taste in their kids, said Lora Appleton, a partner in Kinder Modern: "This is really about people thinking carefully about the family home, about trying to be more sustainable and providing furniture that becomes the new type of heirloom." When she and New York-based interior designer Bachman Brown Clem were decorating her son's room—combing antique shops and auctions for alternatives to mass-market offerings—she realized that much of her decision-making dovetailed with these emerging ideas. Ms. Appleton and Mr. Clem teamed up to create Kinder Modern, which made a strong showing earlier this month at New York's new design fair Collective.1, selling several pieces, including a pair of miniature Thonet bentwood chairs from the '60s, on opening night.

While kitting out the kid's room with coveted vintage wares might seem extravagant, many industry insiders agree that the current boom in the market was born out of the recession. "I think people who have a certain aesthetic want to pass that on," said David Jacob, founder of Mini Jake and Two Jakes, New York stores specializing in vintage and new modern furniture. "But I think that some of it is dictated by economics—in terms of people wanting every piece to count and have a longer life."

"Multifunction is very important today," said Ms. Appleton. "It's about stretching those dollars all through [your kid's] childhood and beyond." As Mr. Clem pointed out, many of Kinder Modern's pieces, like the Thonet chairs and a circa-1950 Bauhaus-esque wooden chair (attributed to Klaus Grabe) with thin red rope zigzagging through it, have a child-friendly playfulness, but would also look great holding a stack of books beside a parent's bed.

"People think 'I'm going to buy this, and then my second kid will use it, and then I'll give it to my niece,' " said Todd Thedinga, CEO of San Francisco-based online retailer Design Public and its sister site, Danish Design Store. "There is an undercurrent of environmental responsibility, but people are also so interested in the authenticity and the craftsmanship." Speaking of multifunction, a big seller at Danish Design Store are furniture sets that double as toys, such as Hans Wegner's Peter's Table and Chair, first created in 1944 as a baby gift and re-editioned in 2011 for the U.S. market by Carl Hansen & Søn. Children love to dismantle and reassemble the blond wood set's components.

For Samantha Firestone, founder and CEO of Little Nest, an Australian firm that produces mini versions of classic modernist furnishings, it's as much about appealing to kids as adults. "Children gravitate toward good design that they think is special," she said. "And when it fits with the rest of the home they are not alienated." That's precisely what the founding fathers (and mothers) of modernism had in mind.

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